André Brasilier
b. 1929 | French

Les chevaux de feu
(The Fire Horses)

Signed “André Brasilier” (lower right)
Oil on canvas

Combining abstract expressionist elements with dynamic brushwork and pulsating color, this compelling oil on canvas is the work of the famed French painter André Brasilier. Brasilier’s paintings contain a unique blend of entrancing figures, balanced color harmonies and a feeling of intimate communication with the natural world, and this work, entitled Les chevaux de feu, encapsulates the mysticism and compelling visual language of his distinctive style.

Immersive in its scale, Les chevaux de feu envelops the viewer, welcoming them into the dreamlike scene of horses and their riders racing through an abstract, sunset-hued ground. The jockeys' green jackets punctuate the vivid orange and yellow hues that fill the canvas. Creating a dynamic sense of movement, Brasilier’s loose, emotive brushstrokes and vibrant palette reveal his expressionist influences. Horses are a frequent motif in Brasilier’s artworks. He has described them as "a superb creation... charged with symbolism, strength, dynamism and beauty," qualities that lend themselves well to the artist’s expressive, emotional depictions of nature.

Born to two accomplished artists, Brasilier was naturally drawn to painting, and at the age of 20, he moved to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts. Brasilier has received several prestigious awards, including the 1952 Prix Florence Blumenthal and the 1953 Prix de Rome. He is also one of only two artists (the other being Pablo Picasso) honored with a retrospective at Saint Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum during their lifetime. He has exhibited works alongside legends such as Picasso, Braque, Chagall and Miro, and he is represented in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.